In life, every question is expected to derive an answer that is deemed close to the truth or otherwise. But again, there are times when some responses tend to be off tangent or otherwise bewildering to many, including the one who popped the question.
That is natural, anyway and dates back to the days the Garden of Eden in the Old Testament where we read in Genesis Chapter 3 verses 9-10 that God asked Adam, the “first man” to be created on earth. When God asked Adam, “Where are you?” despite fully knowing his whereabouts, the expectation was that the man would state his location. But it wasn’t to be as Adam responded: I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
When President Lazarus Chakwera appeared in Parliament on December 18 2024 to answer questions from legislators in line with Section 89 (4) of the Constitution and backed by relevant Parliamentary Standing Orders, my curiosity was drawn to his response to a supplementary question from Nkhata Bay North West legislator Julius Chione Mwase (Democratic Progressive Party). He asked if the President was aware that prices of fertiliser were higher at K105 000 per 50 kilogramme (kg) bag than the campaign promise of K4 495 propagated by Chakwera and his departed Vice-President Saulos Chilima under the Tonse Alliance banner in 2020.
The President’s response was in the affirmative. He said he was aware of rising commodity prices, but pleaded that critics should look at both sides as previously a farmer needed to sell five to six bags to buy a bag of fertiliser while now the farmer is selling two to two and a half bags to fetch the fertiliser bag. In a nutshell, the President said the situation was better now as farmers were earning more from their produce.
The President’s response took me down the memory lane and recalled that in 2020, a 50kg bag of maize was fetching around K10 000 while fertiliser was going at an average of K20 000 per bag. In contrast, four years later, the same quantity of maize is at between K40 000 and K50 000 while fertiliser is going at an average K100 000.
From the above, one can see that nothing has changed much as the President would want the nation to believe.
While it is a fact that, on paper, the official minimum farm gate prices are higher now, but it is also a reality that about 60 percent of smallholder farmers become buyers of maize by August, almost three months after harvest and 90 percent of them are maize buyers by December.
If anything, the President’s narrative could be said to be an advantage to commercial farmers, not the smallholder farmers. You see what, the smallholder farmer will sell his grain at say K650 a kg in May or June and the private trader hoards the stock which he later sells to the same grower in November or December at K950 per kg, requiring him to top up with K300.
The point I am driving at is that the situation does not call for a celebration as it were because, truth be told, the subsistence farmer, who can seldom to have five “loose” bags of maize, is kind of getting a raw deal at the end of the day.
It was a puzzling analogy that, I must say, needs a rethink as it has over generalised and simplified complicated realities of farming, especially among the majority smallholder or subsistence farmers.
On the other hand, allow me to commend President Chakwera for being only the second Head of State in the country after former president Bakili Muluzi to appear before Parliament to answer questions since 1994. To his credit, President Chakwera has done so consistently, well done.
Last, but not least, I wish you all a Merry Christmas! Please be safe, don’t go with the flow like dead fish. Celebrate with a sense of responsibility.
